SAAZ 



SABBATH 



57 



Siia/.. a town of Bohemia, on the Eger, 66 miles 

 by rail NW. of Prague. Pop. 10,425, principally 

 engaged in growing and trading in hops, and in 

 manufacturing sugar, leather, &c. 



Sahil. a Dutch West Indian island, in the Lee- 

 ward group, 40 miles NW. of St Kitts. A volcanic 

 cone, 1500 feet high, it is known from its shape as 

 ' Napoleon's cocked hat. ' Area, 5 sq. m. ; pop. 

 2421. 



Sabadell, a town of Spain, 14 miles by railway 

 NW. of Barcelona. It has risen into importance 

 only within recent years, and is the Manchester of 

 Catalonia. Woollen and cotton fabrics are the 

 staple manufactures. Pop. 18,121. 



Sabadilla, CEBADILLA, or CEVADILLA (Schce- 

 iin'-iialon officinale), a Mexican plant of the natural 

 order Melanthacese, the seeds of which are employed 

 in medicine. In the British Pharmacopoeia the 

 dried ripe seeds receive the name of Sabadilla. 

 They contain an alkaloid, veratrine, which is offic- 

 inal, and probably other closely allied substances. 

 When applied externally the powdered sabadilla or 

 veratrine is first irritant and then anaesthetic; both 

 forms are used in rheumatic and neuralgic pains. 

 Snuffed into the nostrils they cause violent sneezing 

 and irritation. Taken by the month they are also 

 irritant, if in too large a dose, and induce pain, 

 vomiting, and diarrhoea. After alworption into the 

 blood in medicinal doses they act chiefly on the 

 muscles, and depress the heart and circulation and 

 the body temperature. They are employed chiefly 

 in acute febrile diseases in strong, healthy persons, 

 but must be used with great caution on account of 

 their marked depressant effects. The dose of vera- 

 trine is jv to }, grain. 



Sah.'i-aiis, or SABA , were the ancient inhabit- 

 ants of Yemen in southern Arabia. They are the 

 people called Sheha in Gen. x. 28, xxv. 3 ; Job, vi. 

 19 ; and other passages in the prophets ; and it was 

 probably the sovereign of this people who paid the 

 celebrated visit to Solomon. The Sab;eans were a 

 powerful and wealthy people, who from long before 

 the davs of Solomon down to the beginning of the 

 Christian era controlled the sea and caravan traffic 

 in gold, sweet spices, ivory, ebony, and valuable 

 ii-.ii'--. that came from India and Africa, and were 

 dfspatched northwards to Syria. To protect and 

 watch over this trade they had stations or colonies 

 in northern Arabia and in Ethiopia. The capital 

 of their country was Mariaha ( Marib), the ruins of 

 which, including vast dams, lie north-east of Sanaa 

 (q.v. ). Their religion included the worship of the 

 sun and moon, and a number of other deities. 

 Their language is intermediate between Arabic and 

 Ethiopian, but nearer akin to the former. In the 

 8th century B.C. the people of Saba' paid tribute to 

 the kings of Assyria (Tiglath-Pileser and Sargon). 

 The Roman governor of Egypt in 24 B.C., tempted 

 by the fame of the great wealth of the Sabseans, 

 -'nt, an expedition under command of j'Elius Gallus 

 to invade their country ; but it met with little suc- 

 -. Not lone after tliis event, however, the trade 

 upon which the Sah;i-ans relied began to take a 

 sea-ronte and go up the Ked Sea, and from that 

 cause their prosperity ami power seem to have 

 declined. Soon afterwards they appear to have 

 been subject to the sovereignty of the king of the 

 Himyarites. Then, in the 2d century, and again 

 in the 4th, and yet again in the 6th, we read that 

 kings of Ethiopia were lords over the Salueans. 

 Sci- MAND.KASS, XABISM; and various works, pub- 

 lished since 1877, by D. H. Miiller. 



Sahall. a name for British North Borneo. See 

 BORNEO, and SANDAKAN. 



Sabhatai Zevl (also spelt Sabbathau Zevi 

 and Snlitui Ztfi), a false messiah, the founder of 

 a wide-spread sect of semi-Christians and semi- 



Jews throughout Europe, Asia, and Africa, was 

 born at Smyrna in 1641. By his personal mag- 

 netism, his character, his extraordinary learning, 

 and his brilliant abilities, he led thousands of 

 followers, mainly in Smyrna, Salonica, Alexandria, 

 and Jerusalem, where he successively laboured, to 

 believe in him as the Messiah (see MAHDI). In 

 1664 no fewer than about 80,000 people belonged to 

 the new empire ; and in the following year the 

 beginning of the Messianic reign within a few 

 months and the rebuilding of the Temple in the 

 next year were proclaimed aloud in the streets of 

 Alexandria by Sabbatai and six disciples, all clad 

 in white raiments, with garlands on their heads. 

 Somewhat later he returned to Jerusalem ; and the 

 general resurrection, to take place within six years, 

 and the deposition of the sultan, whose crown would 

 be placed upon Sabbatai's head, were proclaimed far 

 and near. But three years later, having provoked 

 serious alarm at Constantinople, he was apprehended 

 at Smyrna, and terrified into something like a recan- 

 tation of his mission. He was said to have declared 

 that his sole object had been all along to embrace 

 Islam, and to carry over all the Jews with him. 

 The sultan declared himself satisfied, and honoured 

 him with the title of an eflendi, giving him an 

 honorary post at the same time. But the move- 

 ment was far from having reached its end. A 

 fictitious man was supposed by some to have em- 

 braced Islam, while the real Messiah had ascended 

 heavenwards. Finally the grand vizier was per- 

 suaded to imprison Sabbatai once more, and to send 

 him to Albania or Servia, where he died in prison 

 according to some, in consequence of poison, 

 while according to others he was executed in 1677, 

 ten years after his conversion. 



Sabbath (Heb. shabbath, from shabath, 'to 

 rest, cease, or leave off ; ' Gr. sabbaton ), the seventh 

 day of the week, set aside, in the Old Testament, 

 as a period of cessation from work. When it was 

 instituted is not known. Many have contended 

 that from its moral and religious importance it must 

 have been instituted at the Creation, and made 

 binding on Adam in paradise and all his posterity. 

 There is certainly no evidence in the Pentateuch of 

 its having been kept in patriarchal times. The cele- 

 bration of the seventh day is first mentioned after 

 the Exodus from Egypt ; though the circumstances 

 connected with the" gathering of quails recorded 

 in Ex. xvi. 23 is sometimes held to presuppose the 

 solemnisation of the Sabbath before the Sinaitic 

 legislation (Ex. xx.); and the formula ' Remember' 

 with which the commandment begins has been 

 interpreted as implying that it was known before, 

 and only required to t>e emphatically recalled to 

 memory" The reason given for the observance in 

 Ex. xx. 11 cannot be taken as deciding the point; 

 for the reason appended to the fourth command- 

 ment in Deut. v. 15 is wholly different. 



The weekly division of time was of course in no 

 way peculiar to the Jews, nor was the religious 

 solemnisation of the seventh day. As we learn 

 from Sayce (Ancient Empires of the East), 'in 

 Babylonia and Assyria the week of seven days was 

 an Accadian or Babylonian invention, the days of 

 the week being dedicated to the moon, sun, and 

 five planets. The 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th days 

 of the lunar month were kept like the Jewish 

 Sabbath, and were actually so named in Assyrian. 

 They were termed dies nefasti in Accadian, ren- 

 dered "days of completion ( of labour)'' in Assyrian ; 

 the Assyrian Sabattu or "Sabbath 1 ' itself being 

 further defined as meaning "completion of work 

 and "a day of rest for the soul." In those days it 

 was forbidden, at all events in the Accadian period, 

 to cook food, to change one's dress or wear white 

 robes, to offer sacrifice, to ride in a chariot, to legis- 

 late, to practise augury, or even to use medicine. ' 



